Carol J Scott,
one of the Founder Directors of our Organisation passed away peacefully on
Monday January 19th, 2009. She was 56. She is survived by her
loving husband Doug, two devoted children Alex and Irene, her two sisters
Margaret Evans and Julie Rowland. In addition she will be missed by many members
of her large extended families, friends and fellow Chinese heritage researchers
in Australia and overseas locations.

In keeping with
her selfless character, she was most cheerful to the end and continued working
with us on a number of Chinese heritage projects.

We are very
sad with Carol’s departure from this life, but such is the cycle of life. We
are already missing our dear friend, but in the best tradition of black
humour we agreed that she has gone ahead of us to update the Victoria 2009 Birth
Death Marriages Index and to set up a Chapter of our Research Group in the Great
Big Chinese Heritage Research Organisation in the Sky.

We know she will
smile as we say farewell to her, of all places, at the Creswick Cemetery.

Our
organisation represented
by Mun Chin, Ivy Chin and Carol Scott visited Creswick August 25th
2007 to present the community with a draft copy of our in-progress study and
interpretation of Creswick’s surviving headstones.

The visit
was in continuing recognition of the enthusiastic support for their work
shown by the Creswick community and included a report on the progress of
work on Creswick-related projects since our major Chinese Heritage event at
Creswick, in November 2006.

We
announced our intention to publish a series of books relating to the Chinese
of Creswick, with the first volume to be based on the headstones; a plea was
also made for any additional information which might exist – to make the
study as complete and valuable as possible.

While the
theme may sound morbid, the stories were laced with humour and drew heavily
on our organisation's knowledge of Chinese death rites, burial customs and
commemoration of the departed.

We
described the story of the Creswick Chinese as told through the headstones –
revealing details of the origins of individuals and their status in life.
While only 22 headstones have survived in full or partial form, they provide
a wealth of information.

We then
described the status of the investigations into the death and burial of
Creswick Chinese, indicating that over 450 Chinese deaths had been
identified to date and all Chinese inquests for Creswick had been
transcribed for further study. We planned to publish the analysis of the
inquests and inquiries into Creswick’s Chinese deaths. Help is required
however to locate a small number of Chinese who died in Creswick but whose
burial location is currently unknown. Any help in finding these strays would
be greatly appreciated.

We
indicated that work had also commenced to analyse the CHIN databases and
extract the personal details of all those identified as living in the
Chinese camps in and around Creswick – with a view to publishing a directory
based on occupation. So far over 2500 Chinese names had been extracted from
public records for Creswick and this number was expected to grow as the data
being extracted from Inquests etc, was added to this collection.

We further
described the ongoing work investigating the Chinese families of Creswick,
but in keeping with the theme of the Chinese dead of Creswick we closed by
referring our investigations into the exhumation of Chinese remains from the
Victorian goldfields, with some comments on the exhumation of Chinese from
the Creswick Cemetery.

Ending
on a lighter note, and in recognition of the approaching Mid Autumn or Moon
Cake festival we shared the story of the festival and provided an
opportunity for all to taste a variety of moon-cakes during afternoon tea.

The highly successful meeting
stimulated further discussions and the possibility of contribution of work by
our group to the Creswick community.

Update 21st May 2007: Field Visit
to Ararat

Our organisation just returned from a field trip
to Ararat, where we had a very productive time at the
Gum San Chinese Heritage Centre, sharing
with Heather Ahpee, the Co-ordinator of the Centre, the work of our
organisation, as well as exploring possible areas of research and taking part in
activities to celebrate the founding of Ararat, 150 years ago. We
encourage you view the page on Heritage Activities, "Ararat".
See also the "Victoria Chinese Index" page {click on the box left side of this
page} and select the page "Ararat", where we have complied a
Register of Chinese Patients - Ararat Asylum 1867-1884.
Note of course that Ararat Asylum is more commonly referred to as
The J Ward, "a museum that explains
the early history of the goldfield times and later, the incarceration of the
criminally insane". We recommend you have a look at the "J Ward" and
the Web site, to understand an age gone by.

Update 6th March 2007: Building a
Home Page for the Gin Family Association of San Francisco

In recent years, our organisation has been involved in a
number of very satisfying projects. These Projects included
consultation on the incremental improvement of museums
depicting the Life and Times of the Chinese Pioneers and
also directly helping Regional Australian communities, with
pride in their connections with the Chinese Pioneers, to
portray the connections in a manner befitting the proud
history. Our work continues and our reputation spreads
beyond the shores of Australia. Our latest contribution is
to the Gin Family
Association of San Francisco.

We are pleased to advised that the Gin Family Association
Official web site has been launched, on the 15th Day of the
Chinese New Year, corresponding to the 4th March 2007. The
San Francisco Gin Sun
Hall Benevolent Association otherwise referred to as the
Gin Family Association, has been in existence in Chinatown
for more than 60 years -- years of great service to the
Gin Clan Family Members.
The President of the Association, Dr. Hal Gin, launched the
Web Site at the Quarterly Association Meeting. The web
site was very much welcome and appreciated by the the Gin
Family Members. Work on this site continues, as the
images and stories contained in the Site stimulate feedback
and contributions from Family Members at home and across the
seas.

The address of the Home Page is
http://ginsunhall.org/ Worth a visit, for
Social Historians and Family Line researchers alike.

We thank the Gin Sun Hall Benevolent Association for the
opportunity and fellowship in this rewarding and continuing
project.

Update: 14th January 2007: Field
Trip to Beechworth

Into the New Year, height of a very dry summer and our organisation is
already deep into our research programme. The Executive Management Team
started the year with a tour of the Victoria Heritage Gold Pioneer Trail.
This time it was to the Ovens Goldfield in north east Victoria, that is, the
general direction of Beechworth, Bright, Buckland and more, where the Chinese
pioneers worked their gold mining claims in the second half of the 1800s.
In
Beechworth we had the good fortune of meeting fellow enthusiasts Kathryn at
the Beechworth Chinese Cultural
Centre, housed at a historical building at Ford Street, Beechworth.
Visit to Beechworth would not be complete if we did not visit the Beechworth
Chinese Cemetery, and that we did.
The
Burning Tower was as impressive as what we have seen in various books and
web sites.

And for good measure, we included Shepparton, where we crossed The Oven River
using The Ah Wong Bridge and inspected the Chinaman's Garden not far from the
bridge.

In time we will share some photos with you.

Update: Edward Yates of Tasmania

Meanwhile, enjoy an excellent article written by Carol Scott, on
Edward Yates, one of the pioneers of
Tasmania, a peaceful island south of mainland Australia, where the
Chinese pioneers
made a significant contribution in tin mining, and later in business.

The
rituals associated with death and funerals are of significant importance in
Chinese culture. (See also Linda Sun Crowder's article on "Mortuary
Practices in San Francisco Chinatown") Intimately linked with the
practice of ancestor worship, and reflecting the central importance of family,
the rituals associated with death ensure that the spirits of the departed are
content and thus more likely to reward the family with good fortune over coming
generations. Very few of the Chinese who came to the Australian colonies had any
intention of remaining, even in the event of an untimely death. Friends,
families, clan and district associations worked together to ensure those who had
the means and the desire could have their remains repatriated to China after
death and ultimately be restored to their families.

The
CHIN index of Chinese Exhumations in Victoria is a work in progress, and is
compiled from PROV VPRS 266 - Inward Registered Correspondence of the Attorney
General. The current version of the index lists 58 Chinese exhumations over the
period January 1871 to September 1875 and provides the details of each
exhumation request as they appear in the original correspondence. This index is
intended to form a companion piece to larger index of Victoria Exhumations, both
Chinese and non-Chinese, for the period January 1873- September 1903 compiled by
Carol Holsworth from PROV VPRS 252 - The Register of Inward Correspondence.

The
combination of both indexes will represent an invaluable resource for researches
interested in pursuing the social history of the Chinese in the Victorian
goldfields

Update: 28th November 2006: A
Heritage Event at Creswick

Our Creswick Chinese Heritage
Event held on Saturday 25th November 2006 went very well. More will be
reported later, but meanwhile we share with you a summary of a very enjoyable
day.

The event was divided into 4
Sessions:

Exploring the Chinese
Cemetery (there are four Gins/Chins 甄headstones in this cemetery)

In addition to food, we decorated
the place up, complete with dragon, Chinese lanterns in the garden and red
buntings along the footpath leading to the house. Inside, we provided Chinese
Wedding setting with the traditional man's gold and red jacket top, woman's red
and gold cheong sam, the three-layered wedding basket and various other items
left over from Paul & Michelle's wedding. And through the course of the
dinner, we explained to the participants the finer points about Chinese
traditional food, Chinese cultures, Creswick Chinese pioneers -- especially the
more colourful characters, such as the Chicken thief.

The evening concluded with a
presentation of a choice of gifts of home made fruit cakes or marmalade.
Ivy and Carol were presented with beautiful floral arrangement and Mun was
presented with two magnificent wood-turned vase and bowl.

We enjoyed ourselves, even though
we were extremely busy. Just three of us managing the entire event, and
delivering the dinner. We were made very welcome and invited back to Creswick
anytime.

In the morning while we were
packing, the treasurer of the Creswick Museum phoned to open up the Museum
specially for 3 of us and gave us a personal escorted tour. We felt very
honoured and very VIP.

More updates later.

Update: October 2006: Planning Our
Work Programme

Since the last CHIN Web Site update in October
2006, in this Southern Hemisphere Spring Update, we have the following items to
add:

Work is continuing to enrich the
existing social history database for the Creswick Chinese community. Work on indexing the
relevant portions of the E.J.Semmens collection is almost complete, as is
the transcription of the inquests of all Creswick Chinese deaths. The result
is the creation of several full text data bases indexing Chinese events, for
example all Chinese references in the Creswick Advertiser over the period
1856-1880. The master data base now contains the in-context names of an
estimated 2500 Chinese who lived, worked or passed through the Creswick area.

Nov 25th 2006 our organisation will
hold a workshop, followed by a Chinese meal - for the Creswick Museum
Association and Creswick Historical Association. This is a "thank you" for
their on going support and also keep our promise of sharing with their
community the highlights of our research. The theme for the dinner is
"heritage food" with dishes offered based on our findings with regard to the
life of the Creswick Chinese.

Approval has been given by our organisation's Executive
Committee to scope a new project for the 2006/2007 work
program. It is proposed to "mine" the growing data collection for a study of
Chinese Interpreters, with particular reference to the influence of Charles
Powell Hodges.

Approval has been given by our organisation's Executive
Committee for an informal memorandum of understanding between
CHIN and the GIN Sun Hall Association of San
Francisco. CHIN representatives are working with the relevant
Association committees to establish an on-line presence for the Association.
This activity was foreshadowed at the 2005 conference in Bendigo and is
directed toward the capture and preservation of key clan cultural and
intellectual capital with a distribution footprint which matches the GIN
clan diaspora (i.e. global availability). It is hoped this will form
a useful adjunct to the current rebuilding of the clan's Gin Sun Hall
Ancestral Hall in Kaiping, China.

Update: April 2006: On the dry
fish industry at Port Albert

"The Langtip Story" by Ray Langtip, a grandson of Chin Lang Tip:
a tribute to a well regarded and resourceful Tarraville pioneer.

A taste of the Sea: Cuisine based on salt fish, dried oysters, dried
shrimps and other dried sea food.

Memory of Harry Fay by Lawrie Burgess: In
this reminiscing session, Lawrie Burgess looks back at a few school friends
of the early 1940s, in particular his good Chinese friend, Harry
Fay. Lawrie paints a cameo of Harry’s traditional Chinese grandfather, who
owned the Hong Yuen grocery store in Inverall, New South Wales.